The Fabric That Holds us Together
by holtzyman
Summary: Tumblr Prompt: Regina is a big New York City designer. While on a quick run to a new fabric store she meet it's owner, Emma Swan, who has a 5 year old son who is her "assistant" (Henry). And instantly falls for both of them.


**Tumblr Prompt: Regina is a big New York City designer. While on a quick run to a new fabric store she meet it's owner, Emma Swan, who has a 5 year old son who is her "assistant" (Henry). And instantly falls for both of them.**

 **Thanks for the prompt! I had a lot of fun writing this!**

Regina storms into the design room, chest heaving as she throws down a roll of fabric at Mary Margret's head. It misses, of course. "What is this?" She demands it calmly, even though she is beyond mad. Anyone can tell. Her chest is heaving, she is walking with an edge, and her eyes were on fire.

Mary Margret looks up, eyes wide and absolutely terrified. She is holding a pencil in one hand, looking over some designs. She looks down at the fabric on the floor, now unraveled and tangling in the hundreds of other fabrics forgotten on the floor.

"Um," she says, trying to speak past the lump in her throat. "It-it looks like the fabric I ordered for you from Delia's."

"Wrong." Regina doesn't yell when she's mad. Instead she chooses to speak calmly, let people know she's mad, let people know she's holding it in. She has discovered over the years that it makes people more scared than if she was yelling. "This is not the fabric I told you to order from Delia's. This has large yellow stars all over it. The one I told you to order from Delia's had small yellow stars on it."

Mary Marget realizes her mistake at once. It wouldn't matter so much if they were a small family owned business like where she used to work. Instead, Regina is a very famous fashion designer with so many famous people wearing her clothes that it doesn't even shock her anymore. Here, there is a huge difference between little yellow stars and large yellow stars.

"I'm sorry," Mary Margret manages to get out, and it just makes Regina snort. "I'll order new ones-"

"How?" demands Regina, crossing her arms over her chest. "We ordered these two weeks ago and they just got here. We don't have another two weeks, Mary Margret!"

Gold needed that dress in exactly one week, three days, and four hours. There was no time to order a new roll and get the dress done. She couldn't lose Gold Industries. They were one of her most important clients and they would lose millions if Gold took his interest elsewhere. And he would, too, over a simple dress being late or having slightly bigger stars.

"It's New York," Mary Margret answers, flinching at Regina's glare. She hurries on before she got yelled at more. "I mean, there are thousands of shops near us. It will only take-"

"Are you forgetting," Regina seethes through her teeth, "that we are a high up, respected, majorly known fashion business? We can't just get fabric from Walmart!"

Mary Margret starts to talk fast. She had to fix it or her job-her well paying job- was in the garbage. "There's this new store, just opened, but everyone seems to like it so far. All the other company blogs I follow swear it's good. They are an actual fabric store, too, not a craft store or anything."

Regina pauses to consider the new information. The dress needed to at least be started by tomorrow. And if what Mary Margret said was true, then other companies had been using this store.

She rubs her temples and lets out a sigh but nods. "Alright, fine."

Mary Margret jumps to leave, but Regina holds out her hand to stop her. "Don't you think you've done enough? I'll get it." With one last eye roll, Regina left, making sure to sway her hips just a little bit more than usual.

~()~

The cold air hits her as she enters the shop. She looks around and nods approvingly. It's nice, but also looks expensive. It's big, but not too big, and for some reason, it smelled like old books. Regina was in love with it the minute she stepped in.

There were so many fabrics. She just wanted to get lost in the store and look at all of them for days. Instead, she couldn't. She had a deadline and it needed to be met.

She looks at the store and frowns, not quite sure where she needs to look first. There's so many fabric. Good fabric, too. She heads over to the plains first, because this is a new store and she wants to get to know what they have. It's so grand and Regina can definitely see herself coming back here.

She runs a hand over some silk and almost purrs. It's so soft and it even seems like a better piece than anything over at Delia's. Regina frowns. She's been with Delia's for over ten years, her mom longer, and yet she's comparing it to a store that just opened.

"Hello!"

Regina almost drops the fabric she was holding. She looks up, sees no one, then looks down. A slow grin takes over as she takes in the small little boy with brown hair and beautiful brown eyes.

"Hello," Regina answers kindly.

"Do you need help?"

On his button down blue shirt, he has a little name tag with the words, "Henry" sprawled in crayon. He's adorable.

"Well," Regina stars, kneeling down to Henry's level, "I'm on a very special mission. I need to find fabric with little yellow stars. Can you help me with that?"

"Yeah!" Henry grins, showing off a missing side tooth on his lower set of teeth. "I'm Henry. What's your name?"

"I'm Regina. It's nice to meet you, Henry."

"You too!" Henry's smile is huge. "Follow me!"

He sets out of the isle and Regina quickly puts back the fabric she was holding and follows him. He marches down the store, talking in rough babbles and long run on sentences about moving from Boston so his mom can finally set up his store. On the way to one isle, he points to a pretty blonde hair woman, says, "That's my mom! Her name is Emma. Isn't she pretty?"

Before Regina can even answer, he takes a sharp right and carries on. "This is her dream. She said she wanted this her whole life! She always wanted a store just by herself. And now she got it!"

He walks over to a giant thing of fabric, filled with hearts, stars, triangles, cars, and a lot of other cool things. Regina makes a mental note to come back for the cars one. She doesn't know why.

Henry isn't done talking. "She said I could help whenever I want and I can even get paid when I'm older! I get paid now, too, though! Yep, five dollars every week. Isn't that so cool?"

Regina makes more than that every second, but to a five year old, five dollars is a lot of money. She smiles and resists the urge to rub his hair. "That's very cool, Henry." She looks at the fabric then down at him. "Thank you so much for helping me."

"No pra-blame-o!" Regina almost flinches at the way he butchered the word but instead opts to send him a small smile.

"I got to go help some other people," Henry declares. "Check out is over there." He points to the counter, where the pretty blonde from before is now scanning some ribbons for an elderly looking man. (The blonde is very, very pretty.)

Regina runs her hands over a few pieces of cloths. They all felt so good. She makes a promise to herself that next time she comes here, it will be for pleasure and she will buy as many things as she wants. Now, she has a deadline and she needs to hurry.

She inspects the stars and finds one almost identical to the one she wanted from Delia's. At Delia's she was able to put in the measurements she wanted the stars to be, but the little stars on the blue fabric was almost the same, perhaps a centimeter bigger. But they weren't large, and they would certainly do.

Grabbing a few rolls, she heads over to the counter and gets behind a very big woman who smells like he hadn't taken a shower in days. The woman seems to be complaining about something, before throwing down a package of buttons and stomping off.

Regina watches as the blonde lets out a deep breathe before smiling at Regina. "Hello," she chirps. Her name tag reads "Emma". "Did you find everything okay?"

"Certainly." Regina hands over the roll of fabric to be scanned, and smiles down at Henry who just went behind the counter. "Your assistant here helped me find the fabric I needed."

"I did, Mom!" Henry nods proud, chest puffing out, causing both of the woman to laugh.

"Oh, really? That's so?

"Yep!"

Regina can't help but grin madly at the little boy, looking up to see Emma smiling, too. "Well, did you thank this nice lady for allowing you to help?"

Henry shakes his head, his cheeks flushing red. "No. Thank you Regina for letting me a-cist-you."

Before Regina can reply, Emma beets says, "Regina?"

Regina nods. "I'm Regina."

"Emma."

Emma sticks out her hand and as Regina shakes it, she laughs and says, "I know." At Emma's confused look, she points to the blonde's name tag.

Emma blushes, not unlike her son. "Nice to meet you, Regina."

"You, too, Emma."

Someone behind Regina clears their throat, making Regina realize she's holding up the line. Emma quickly scans the fabric and Regina pays before stepping to the side.

"Goodbye Regina," Henry says before she fully leaves.

"Goodbye, Henry. Goodbye, Emma."

"Wait." Emma is holding a pair of fabric cutting scissors someone is buying, but as she scans it, she says quickly to Regina, "I really don't do this, you know, just ask a random girl out, but I like you, you're very pretty and you were nice to my son. I guess what I'm trying to ask is, um, would you like to go on a date sometime with me?"

Shock runs through with Regina before she smiles. She can't deny it. She was hooked on the blonde the minute she saw her. (And her adorable little son.) "I'd love to."


End file.
